Rebooking responsibility of missed connection

Since I like to think and plan ahead, who would be responsible of rebooking on a One World connection booked on separate tickets? I

am flying on AA137 (DFW-HKG) on Oct 2 which lands on Oct 3 and connects to CX 913 (HKG-MNL). On October 6, I fly on CX 912 (MNL-HKG) which connects to AA138 (HKG-DFW). If either connection becomes missed due to a delay, who would be responsible for rebooking the missed leg? AA was booked with money and CX was booked with BA Avios.

The reason I ask this very basic question is some time ago I was involved in a Star Alliance IROPS at LHR where Air New Zealand landed quite late and I was a missed connection to Alitalia and spent hours trying to get NZ to rebook, when they claimed it was the fault of AZ. I eventually got rebooked after making 4 round trip transfers between NZ and AZ airside desks (in different terminals) since both refused to pick up the phone and call ("Oh, we're not allowed to call another airline...").

As I understand it, it is the responsibility of the delayed arriving airline to absorb cost and rebook. Though I don't know how it works with separately booked tickets in the same alliance.

One other thing, if you have checkin luggage, it might not be check through to final destination. You should verify that at your first "leg" checkin in both directions. If the luggage cannot be check through, you will have to pick them up and re-check the luggage.

One other thing, if you have checkin luggage, it might not be check through to final destination. You should verify that at your first "leg" checkin in both directions. If the luggage cannot be check through, you will have to pick them up and re-check the luggage.

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All the OP's flights are on OW partners (even with the recent policy modification by AA) permits luggage check-through on different bookings.

Seems like they can do a through check (which than offers the passenger end-to-end protection) but as they have no way to ensure (enforce) that the two separate bookings are in order so the service is not officially communicated.

Once again, I've learnt something new and useful.

Wrote in to oneworld enquiring about the same - response from the VP Membership and Customer Experience below:
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Thank you for your note enquiring about through service provided in the event of separate point-to-point tickets, which our VP Corporate Communications forwarded for my review.

As an alliance, oneworld member airlines follow agreed procedures to provide through check-in service for passengers holding separate tickets involving another oneworld member airline. However, we have chosen not to highlight this service on our website.

Traveling on separate tickets for a single itinerary can compromise our member airlines’ ability to provide proper through service for our customers. For example, our ability to provide through check-in service can be compromised if passenger names are not entered in exactly the same way during the two separate booking processes; one booking under the name of Smith/JohnA (for example, in the BA system for the LHR-HKG flight) may not support proper system links to a separate reservation made under the name of Smith/JohnAlexander (for example, in the CX system for the HKG-SYD flight). While customers can overcome the through check-in concern with website check-in for both segments, further baggage handling problems may be caused by those separate check-ins, as the second carrier – in your example, CX – may not receive adequate baggage information from the first carrier.

Once a passenger is through-checked, that passenger is provided protection in the event of a flight disruption, even if the passenger has chosen to purchase separate tickets.

I hope this answers your question. Thank you for your support of our oneworld member airlines.

Neither airlines are obligated to accommodate your missed connection. This sounds harsh but this is also why people buy travel insurance.

Technically speaking, when you booked separately, they are not even connections but rather just two flights. Viewed as that, you'll see why neither airline is responsible.

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I always buy travel insurance just on the off chance there is a missed connection or my bags don't arrive (on the rare occasion I check bags). And thats what I thought, I guess I was a little hopeful that since they are in the same alliance they would rebook. But hopefully I don't have to cross that bridge.

WilliamQ said:

One other thing, if you have checkin luggage, it might not be check through to final destination. You should verify that at your first "leg" checkin in both directions. If the luggage cannot be check through, you will have to pick them up and re-check the luggage.

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AA just changed their policy on checking bags through. Since both AA and CX are in OneWorld, the bags will check through. When I check in at SFO, I will need to let the agent know of the separate booking.

Wandering Aramean said:

With the exception that AA will treat inbound flights on OW partners as though they are on the same PNR for purposes of such protections. It is a published benefit last I looked.

NZ and AZ were never in the same alliance so that likely didn't help your situation there.

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I could've sworn that they were both in Star Alliance...Then again that trip was 5+ years ago.

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